But honestly. Is the R5 and S5 that much of a marked improvement from when Cervelo was at it's pinnacle when R3 SL and SLC SL were king? I think Damon Rinard is a very smart man. But Cervelo has lost its ways.

Back then Cervelo appealed to me. Not because a tour de france team was riding one. Because the owners were actually really close to the bike designs and marketing and such. I like that no thrills geeky engineering website they used to have from 2003 to 2009ish time frame. I liked how 2 engineers from a University in Canada went for broke and made it. I have a similar dream as theirs.

Now I go there, and I don't see anything special, and the new bikes don't seem that special to me. Gerard Vroomen and Phil White no longer run the show. It's sad.

I agree but not quite completely. I think Cervelo lost their way before Vroomen and White left. I think the peak of the slide started when Gerald decided he knew more about what riders wanted than they did and changed the geometry, including that tall head tube.

There's nothing to distinguish Cervelo now from 8-12 of their competitors. There are lots of aero frames out there; there are at least two major companies that make frames comparable to the RCA and are custom; the R5 has lots of competitors and many riders say are even better; and Cervelo doesn't see fit to stay with competitors in offering electronic groups to the R series!

I'm a huge Cevelo fan and still have my SLC-SL but anyone that is objective and unbaised realizes the company doesn't make anything unique like they used to.

Oh good grief, Phil White has not left Cervelo! Gerard Vroomen has started his Open MTB company, yes, but Cervelo's whole mission is still pushing the envelope of engineering and design. The acquisition by Pon has only made Cervelo stronger.

It's common knowledge that competitors catch up to one another and yes, I agree there isn't any huge leapfrogging going on right now but that's only because the closer you get to the theoretical end of the envelope, the smaller the gains.

I'll wait to speculate until the 2014 models are officially introduced and we have some concrete figures.

Last edited by duodiscus on Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The R series is about the only major high end bike without electronic groups.

Is Cervelo late to the internal cabling party with the R5? Yes absolutely, but there is nothing stopping you from putting an electronic groupset on an R5. It's purely a matter of aesthetics. I don't know what their reason was for waiting, but I think what matters now is what the next gen R5 will sport.

Just wait until wireless groupsets are introduced, and the scramble will be on to cover up all the holes again.

@BmanX - again, sorry for you getting dragged into this due to my carelessness

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